by T5 and The Eurostar
Tobias Cracken, leader of the Hoods, champion of the cause, Master Warper, and terrific husband to Natalia Cracken, looked on his small portable screen on the office table.
The Castle had many rooms for different purposes, and this one was booked by the Hoods for preparations of speeches and governmental commands.
If that old fool Neanderthal Myrddin hadn't stolen their Gaia units, they could have come here with some dignity. Instead they had to use automobiles, cars. How confining.
If only the plans for those units hadn't been lost in ages past, he would easily have more built.
Tobias Cracken, leader of the Hoods, champion of the cause, Master Warper, and terrific husband to Natalia Cracken, never noticed the door open behind him until it was too late. And the last thing he ever saw was the face of someone he had learned to fear and, paradoxically, respect.
"What are you do--?"
BANG
Deep space:
Captain Ekorre of the Seela received confirmation to his queries from high command. They were to send a scout ship through the neutrino field and see where the escaped prisoners had gone to.
He sighed. It was never easy to send troops on missions like these. Even if they did survive the trip through the neutrino field, they had to rely on themselves to get back. He considered this.
"Master Warper Craigh, you will be in charge until the time I return. I will pick an away team and pursue the filth that killed our wives and beloved leaders."
"But, sir... what should...?"
"My order is given. I can't send anyone on a mission like this without being a part of it. It's a dangerous task, and I will not waste my best officers on this."
He stood up, signaling for the others to remain in their seats, and walked off the bridge.
His thoughts were now focused on gathering the best group he could find amongst his crew without using the officers. He would never let them risk their lives over a group of trash like these terrorists. They would be hunted down and exterminated with extreme prejudice.
Edulcore Cicciotto:
As Nadia jumps out the window, I begin to hear loud shouts and cries all over the place.
I open the door of my room, and in the corridor I see people running like mad toward the stairs and down to the lobby. I take Ladnikia from the floor, get dressed, and follow the men.
Downstairs, in front of the open door of a room, is Demeter looking very worried. There are many Hoods with angry faces and some Futurists looking worried. There are also Ameristar and Crasher back in their usual costumes.
I join them and ask what has happened. Ameristar looks at me with a serious face. "The leader of the Hoods has been killed. The neutral ground has been violated, and we have to discover what happened, or else it will be all-out war over the planet."
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Castle is sealed!" announces Demeter. "The Aegian field has been activated, and no Gaia unit or transponder spell will function until a new instruction. You are asked to go back to your own room until the investigation begins. Now, please go."
Ameristar whispers to me to follow her, but then someone behind me with a louder voice, says, "You, Cicciotto, come with me!" I turn, and an old man, most likely a member of the Futurists, waves me over to his door.
I walk up to him, thinking it may be a trap. But he smiles and says, "Come in, come in. We have much to discuss."
The room reminds me of something seen in the movies: dark wooden bookshelves, heavy green curtains, a huge desk with a fake gas-light bulb.
He sits down and silently regards me as I cautiously sit down in the opposing chair.
"The internal matters of our organizations isn't something you should concern yourself with at this time, my friend. The guards of this place will have everything sorted out, and the culprit will be found. In the meantime, I must ask you to not interfere with upcoming events in here. You must--"
"Actually, I must nothing. I don't belong to any of your radical groups. I'm not really sure what it is you're even doing here. Something about controlling governments and such, but otherwise I'm actually still in the dark as to your real purpose here. Why are you here?"
"Me, or the organization?"
"Yes, you. What is it you do here?"
The old man rose to walk around the room while never letting his gaze off me. "I am what you would call... a judge. In our internal struggles, as all organizations sadly have, I function as the judge in trials and such. I am also an excellent researcher and what you would call magician." He chuckles mildly.
"I'm not really sure I beleive in magic," I say to taunt him. Maybe he will show me something, reveal a small detail of information that I could use.
"Not many do... and that's our strength. Nobody believes in huge world conspiracies to control governments and events. Which is why both of our groups have been hidden so well in plain sight."
"For several thousand years?"
"Yes, but now things are changing. The rise of metahumans all over the world is upsetting the status quo. Now both sides seek those who can be used as soldies in our ranks, so to speak. Oh, there have been metahumans since the stone age, but only a very few at any given time. Recently, however, something must have upset the order of things, and beings like yourself are more common."
I shrug and say, "Yes, I've noticed."
He looks at me with fierce eyes and continues, "There has also been an increase in other-dimensional intrusions. You know a few, I believe. Let's see, here..."
He takes out a small notebook and opens it. "Someone called M'xy, another called Stringfellow, a recent angelic being that I haven't been able to name yet. And... a small matter of concern to us... your old devilish friend, Naecken."
I rise out of my chair. "What do you know of him?"
"It seems he is situated in the southern polar region. We have an agent there as we speak. She gives us regular reports about some army building up there. What do you know of this?"
"Nothing." My thoughts go out to my old friend. I knew he was in trouble, but at this time there was nothing I could do. My duties were here. Troubled, I sit down again.
"Don't worry, Cicciotto. We have sent down a military force that will take care of the problem. But there is something I would like to know..."
"Yes?"
"Did you kill Tobias Cracken?"
"Me? That's ridiculous! I didn't even know that Cracken. Why should I have killed him?"
The Futurist looks at me deeply. "Your thoughts are shielded, Cicciotto. Neither my magic nor the Hoods' science can read your mind. That's one of the thing that bothers us. That's one of the things neither one of us can explain. Is it a product of your special heritage? Is it your status as the Timeless Champion? We don't know. That upsets us.
"Why should you have killed him? From what I know, and that isn't much, Cracken was not thrilled -- well, he was plainly averse -- to have you join the Hoods. That's why they tried to kill you during your escape from the EPS. You see, the future has been altered -- well, it was destroyed in all of its paths -- just mere months ago. Obviously, after it was canceled out, it just began to rebuild itself from the present, with new paths, similar or different from before. But every path that has reformed since then converges in one point not so many years from now... a path in which you become a world tyrant. There are factions, in both our two organizations, that work to avoid that.
"Now, after you gained Ladnikia, that option has faded. Your blade is known to be unstoppable from every parallel reality in which she exists. Now both our societies want to accomplish having you at the head of one of the societies. Actually, your coming will be the thing that will secure total and absolute victory to one of our party. Only fools like Cracken..." The man lowers his voice and comes closer to me. "...or Aurochs among the Futurists want you dead."
Words. Like always in this place, so many words. Tyrant of the world. That's a joke, I hope. Aurochs. Where have I heard this name?
"If I was the killer, why a gun and not my blade? And where is the gun?"
"The answer to the why is obvious, Cicciotto. Your blade is unique. The marks she leaves are unmistakable. It would have been like you signed the killing. The gun is currently searched by our joined commission. In fact, either a Futurist, a Hood, or one of the accursed Neanderthal's bitches could have it teleported in and then out of the place. If we don't find it, it's a point for you. You are the one who's less likely to have made it disappear."
"Are there any other possible subjects to be investigated?" I ask.
"You have someone in mind?" he asks, piercing me with his blue eyes.
"The woman... Demeter?"
"No. She is the guest here. In fact, what's happened affects her the most. It strips her of much of her power. There isn't any possible reason for her to do the killing."
"Why? Who is she?"
"Just what she said to you. She is the mate of the Timeless Champion. She is your balance."
"Okay. What I want to know is who she was, just like I was once Edulcore Cicciotto, ex-Olympic champion, ex-junkie, ex-restaurant owner. And how she has been endowed with the mission to host this gathering, and why and how the killing would affect her."
The mage looks at me, then pulls back on his chair. "I don't understand you. One second you seem to be the most ingenuous of men, the next you ask the right questions. You are amazing me, sir."
Huh? What does that mean? What he is trying to make me believe? Is he trying to gain my confidence? Can he really think I am so easily deceived?
"To respond to your question, Cicciotto: she was found after a long search across the whole planet. Who she was is of no importance. She was found when she was an infant of two years old by a joint expedition of Hoods and Futurists, and then raised to be the host of our annual meeting. She is empowered to be the guarantor of the neutral ground. Now, with what's happened, her role will be revoked."
Annual meeting? "Annual meeting, you said?"
"Yes," he says, nodding.
"But... you are fighting from the beginning of time itself. How is it possible you have annual meetings?"
"It's just from four thousand years ago we have. It's needed, since the world has become so complex. Until the beginning of the bronze age, we were just doing our business, clashing here and there, putting one tribe versus the other, making people move and discovering inhabited places. But when empires began to be built, there was a need to plan far in advance. And when we both discovered the way to look to the future, we had to start to agree on some rules in order not to wipe away reality itself, a thing that sometimes happens even today.
"Not many months ago, one parallel Earth was destroyed during one of our uprisings. We unleashed too many mythic creatures on that Earth. After a giant appeared in Paris, the planet was destroyed. Strangely enough, two humans managed to escape: one of the girls of the Neanderthal and the Giorgio that was stalking her. We lost their tracks, sadly."
Nadia! Her story is true -- but so what?
"So you meet to secure some future and disregard others?" I ask. The man says he can't read my mind, but is that true? What if he is able to and told me that just to have me thinking to things he shouldn't know? Nah, he wouldn't try to make me feel fine, like he's doing.
"Basically, yes," he explains. "We bring what we know about futures where both our societies disappear, mostly thanks to the effort of the Paleolithic bastard. We study them, find the origin point of the temporal path, and make sure there is one of us -- Hoods or Futurists -- to avoid it when it should happen."
"You change the future operating in the present, you mean?" I ask.
"Yes. That's a lot more convenient... and safe... than traveling the time stream."
Silence.
"Can I go now?" I ask.
"Sure. You are still suspect number one, though." Then he comes closer, just like he did before. "Rest assured that, if you are the actual killer, the thing will be highly appreciated by the Futurist Society, and you will be granted secure refuge from the fury of the Hoods. Remember it," he whispers in my head.
I leave the place. When I am back in my room, I look outside the window. Just like I suspected, my room is exactly one story over the room where Cracken was killed. The man died in the same moment Nadia left me, jumping outside the window. And nobody seems to know she was here.
Just when I am thinking this, I raise my head.
On the outside wall, standing at an impossible angle, a man is looking at me.